The Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), has withdrawn more than 78 metric tons of gold from vaults in New York, citing an unstable international situation, the Financial Times reported. The Netherlands is not the first European country to reduce or eliminate its gold holdings in the United States.
DNB said the withdrawal was part of a wider redistribution of roughly 86 metric tons of gold held in the United States and Canada, with most of it transferred to London. The bank said the decision was meant to strengthen its readiness for a crisis amid what it called growing geopolitical instability.
DNB did not blame US President Donald Trump for the move and did not suggest that Washington intended to confiscate its reserves. Instead, the central bank said spreading its gold more evenly across different jurisdictions would reduce risks and give it faster access to the metal if it were ever needed.
DNB President Olaf Sleijpen said the relocation had increased the liquidity of the bank's gold reserves.
The Netherlands holds about 612 metric tons of gold in total. According to the Financial Times, the latest redistribution cut the country's New York holdings by just over 78 metric tons and its Ottawa holdings by about 7 metric tons.
Most of the gold did not actually cross the Atlantic. Only about 27 metric tons were physically transported from North America to Europe, while DNB sold most of its remaining North American holdings and bought replacement gold in London instead.
Which other European countries have pulled gold from the US
France has gone further, eliminating its gold holdings in New York entirely by selling 129 metric tons that had been stored in the United States. Proceeds from the January sale were used to buy an equivalent amount of gold in Europe, which is now held in Paris. The Bank of France ruled out any political motive behind the move.
These moves come amid a tense political climate in Europe, where several German lawmakers have publicly questioned the wisdom of keeping large gold reserves in New York under the Trump administration. None of the lawmakers has claimed that Trump has an actual plan to confiscate the gold.
Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, holds about 3,350 metric tons of gold in total, including 1,236 metric tons in New York, roughly 37% of its overall reserves. Around 1,710 metric tons are held in Frankfurt and about 404 metric tons in London. Between 2013 and 2017, Germany carried out a large-scale repatriation, moving 300 metric tons from New York to Frankfurt and a further 374 metric tons from Paris.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York acts as a custodian rather than an owner of foreign governments' gold reserves, and US law generally protects the assets of foreign central banks from seizure by private creditors seeking to enforce court judgments.
Central banks' gold buying plans
Bloomberg reported on June 16 that a record number of central banks worldwide plan to increase their gold reserves this year. In a survey of 74 central banks, 45% said they planned to buy gold in 2026, the largest share since the World Gold Council and YouGov Plc began collecting the data in 2018. Only one bank said it planned to cut its reserves, the World Gold Council said.
Meanwhile, Russia's gold reserves have fallen by 1.6 million troy ounces since the start of the year, to 73.2 million ounces as of August 1, the lowest level since January 2020. Over seven months, the value of the Bank of Russia's gold reserves dropped by $33.7 billion.
